HBO Is Open To A ‘Game of Thrones’ Prequel — Here Are Three Ideas For Them

Game of Thrones only has two seasons left. This means HBO only has two seasons left of its record-breaking ratingsbefore they descend back to Earth. Or will they? With everything going on in the world this week, it was easy to miss HBO programming president Casey Bloys declaring they will not go quietly into that Game of Thrones-less night and are open to the idea of prequels.

Oh, man. *Cracks knuckles* I have been waiting for that magic word. “Prequel.”

In 2014, Elio Garcia and Linda Antonsson released The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros with the blessing of George R.R. Martin. Written from the in-universe perspective of Maester Yandel, it collects the entire history of Martin’s world using his extensive notes and filtering them through an unreliable narrator constrained by the incomplete knowledge of those living history instead of that of an omniscient world builder. I highly recommend it, as piecing together what actually happened is half the fun.

But for HBO, three time periods stand out as worthy of their own prequel. The rise of the Mad King, the fall of Old Valyria, and the Age of Heroes which is denoted by the First Men landing in Westeros. Each of these has been touched on in Game of Thrones, which would give viewers a touchstone to how it connects to that universe. Each is bursting with side plots, intrigue, and larger-than-life characters. In the video below — from my daily Facebook Live show — I expand on each of the three options. Which one do you like?

Seems like the perfect option. It compliments the main series well but has a somewhat lighter tone (at least so far), plus it would be cheaper to film because it has a smaller cast and fewer large battles and set pieces. Like most good prequels it features a few minor cameos and references to characters and events from the main series, but doesn’t feel like a retread of the same storylines.

I also like the fact that each Dunk and Egg story reads like a different genre, The Hedge Knight is a classic sports underdog movie, Sworn Sword is a western, and the Mystery Knight is sort of a detective story. Writers could have a lot of fun with genres and motifs for future episodes (screwball comedy, horror, war movies, etc.)

Dunk and Egg would make decent movies but not TV series. They’re lacking in interesting on-screen female characters to capture the entirety of the GoT audience.

The war of the usurper might have been a good option until they brought the tower of joy scene into season 6. I feel as though this entire story has already been told throughout the series were watching today.

That leaves a few options.
– the princess and the queen / dance of the dragons (with some back story pulled from the Rogue Prince)
– the first blackfyre rebellion